High-Caseworker Personalised Employment Model for Homeless Individuals
RCTReview
Individuals experiencing homelessness face severe, multi-faceted barriers to labor market entry that generic public employment services fail to address due to high caseworker caseloads and rigid standardized procedures.
Picture this
Standard employment assistance is like a crowded emergency room where one doctor handles fifty patients at once, giving everyone the same brief checkup. Doubling the staff ratio acts like assigning a personal guide who stays by the person's side, helping them fix urgent shelter needs, tailor job searches, and navigate work placement step-by-step.
What the evidence says
Participants assigned to personalized support worked approximately 14 additional days over a 6-month follow-up period according to administrative records (an 80% increase over comparison), were 8 to 10 percentage points more likely to report employment in surveys, and demonstrated marked improvements in housing stability, safety, and life satisfaction.
- Who was studied
- 462 adults experiencing homelessness across 6 Spanish cities (224 treatment, 238 comparison).
- How
- Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) evaluating a 6–18 month personalized employment model by Hogar Sí with doubled caseworker-to-beneficiary ratios (1 technician per 20-25 participants vs 1 per 45-55).
What to do
Lower caseworker caseloads to a 1:20 ratio for specialized caseworkers assisting unhoused job seekers to provide simultaneous flexible job search assistance, housing mediation, and post-employment retention support.
From the source
"According to administrative records, participants who received personalised support worked approximately fourteen days more during the six months following the intervention (an increase of roughly 80 percent relative to the comparison group)."
promoting-labor-market-inclusion-policy-publication.pdf